Comfort - A Tom Hiddleston One Shot
by sherekahnsgirl
Summary: Tom's lover is very nervous and tense about a housewarming party they're throwing. Tom helps her relax about it. Romantic!Tom, Comfort!Tom, Fluff, Romance, Small Amount of Angst, Vague Reference to Abuse


A/N:

This is ABSOLUTELY safe for work. There is NO SEX in this story. NONE. This is probably about as G-rated as I'm ever going to get.

***Vague reference to abuse***

My marvelous husband was being so wonderfully romantic yesterday that, in his absence, I needed me some fluffy Rom!Tom.

Somewhat inspired by the Beach Boys, "God Only Knows"

Romantic!Tom, Comfort!Tom, Fluff, Romance, Small Amount of Angst, Vague Reference to Abuse

She saw him as soon as he came in the door - he was, as always, head and shoulders above the rest - so it was easy to spot him even without his floofy curls - and something in her relaxed incrementally just knowing he was there. She watched him being instantly inundated by well-wishers who all wanted his attention, but, although he was pleasant and polite to all of them, of course, he immediately begin to scan the crowd of friends and family - who were pretty much all his with a few that she knew as acquaintances through him since she hadn't really been in-country long enough to make many of them - looking for her.

Dora's feet began to move towards him even before she had a conscious thought to do so, heading towards him with a single minded intent like a Tom-seeking missile, insinuating her way agilely through the crowd, smiling vaguely at people who spoke to her, not really hearing anything of what they were saying in her determination to get to him, never wavering in the absolutely certain of her reception once she got there.

That was a true testament to how he had accomplished miracles in allaying even her most deep-seated insecurities in a relatively short amount of time.

His eyes found and settled on her like a touch, warm and genuine and supportive, but most of all, loving; his gaze never leaving her once he found her.

When she was finally standing in front of him, looking all that way up at him - even though she was wearing heels - and into those bottomless pools of azure he called eyes, she let the mere sight and nearness of him begin to calm her frazzled nerves, the sounds of the party behind them fading into nothingness as she took her first full breath since he'd left this morning, knowing that he, too, had felt everything and everyone else fall by the wayside until it was just them.

It was always, always just them when they were together, even if they were surrounded by rowdy loved ones and friends.

A warm smile playing about his lips as he bent down to take her small, delicate hands and lace his fingers with hers. "I'm so sorry for being late. The interview ran long and I couldn't just run out of it." His brows drew together and his forehead crinkled as he frowned slightly down at her, noting the pinched look about her eyes and lips and not liking it. "Are you all right, babygirl? You look stressed to the max."

In answer, all Dora did was to stand straight in front of him and bend at the waist, until her forehead connected solidly with his chest.

Tom knew it was as close to asking to be rescued as the independent little cuss was likely to get. And when he felt the front of his shirt dampening and he realized that she was crying, he murmured wordlessly soothing sounds as he cupped the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair and bending down to whisper into her ear, gently but firmly, "Come with me." He used the hold he already had on one of her hands to tug her through the crowd, politely but briefly acknowledging everyone's greetings but not allowing _anyone_ to deter him from his goal, which was their bedroom.

Dora recognized where he was heading and immediately began trying to extract her hand from his. "But, Tom, I can't disappear! I'm the hostess - I have guests -" She tried to drag her feet, but it did absolutely no good. Sometimes his innate strength - which had only increased as he'd added layers of muscle to play the part of _Coriolanus_ \- amazed her. At one time, she might have been afraid of becoming too close to a man who could command such power, but not Tom.

Not ever, _ever_ could she be afraid of her Tom.

That said, she still wasn't very happy when his hand tightened on hers, giving her no say in the matter.

By the time they got to the door of their room and he opened it to tuck the two of them into a place where they'd have at least a modicum of privacy, her cheeks were bright red - not from nerves but from the fact that, as he'd steadfastly guided her through the crowd, she'd been forced to encounter the kind of indulgent, knowing looks that made her realize that their guests all thought they knew exactly what was going to go on between them once that door closed.

As if she was going to have sex with him with a hoard of people in the next room.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Tom turned to her, and after quickly assessing the tense, strained look on her face and her tear reddened eyes, he simply gathered her into his arms bending his legs as he plastered her against him stem to stern, long arms trapping hers at her sides, so she had no choice but to be _very_ thoroughly, _very_ tightly _hugged_ by him, without being allowed to reciprocate in the least as he rocked them both slowly side to side, one big hand buried in her hair, and the other massaging and rubbing her back.

Eventually, when he could feel that she had stopped struggling and had decided to surrender to him as she relaxed by slow increments into his embrace, he began to speak, not worrying about finding her ear because it was fairly quiet in there, and he knew she would hear his words through the rumble in his chest where her ear was pressed against it. His voice was soft and firm, but above all modulated low and deep, so as to be the most soothing to her. "First of all, I love you, I love you, I love you." He gave her an extra tight squeeze to emphasize each heartfelt declaration, pausing deliberately to let that sink into what could be her big, oft times stubborn, brain a bit before continuing, "And I want you to know how much I appreciate how hard you've worked planning and organizing this get together. I know you're feeling stressed about it, but I want you to take a deep breath and relax. I know you've done a marvelous job, and everyone's enjoying themselves, so I don't want you to worry about anything any more. I'm here, I'll take care of everything from this point on. You're only job is to have fun at our little housewarming party."

Her mind still niggled at her - although much less stridently than it had been before he'd arrived - that this was far from a "little housewarming party". Because he'd been late, she'd had to introduce _herself_ to his parents, whom she'd never met before.

Luckily, they were both wonderful people, and she could see where he got his sunny personality from his Mum, and his disgustingly masculine charm from his Dad. Both of his parents were very complimentary - to her as well as about the few subtle changes she'd made to his place in the few short months she'd been living there. But to say that it had been nerve-wracking was too mild a description - terrifying was probably a better term, especially since she knew that he had never been serious enough about a woman to let his parents meet her.

Until Elizabeth walked into his life.

It felt strange to even think that name in conjunction with her, since he never used it with her - except for the truly rare instances when she'd done something about which he was not happy. Few other people called her by her real first name, either, beyond her coworkers. Her family nickname was Trouble, as she had been a bit of a brat, but he never saw that side of her and therefore refused to call her that. Instead, he consciously chosen to call her "Dora", which was a shortened version of "adorable", because that was what she was to him, and he definitely adored her.

Originally, they had not had an easy time of it. For every step he took towards her, she took two away from him after pretty much walling herself off from any potential romantic involvement in the aftermath of a very abusive relationship.

But Tom wasn't one to give up when he found something - or in this case, some _one_ \- he wanted. His steadfast interest in her - that he had never concealed from her from the moment they met - which had quickly and easily morphed into a deep, abiding love as he got to know her, along with what was his nearly infinite patience with her tentativeness, and the obvious and unabashed ways he showed how much he cared for her - completely without regard for any audience they might or might not have - had slowly finally brought her around.

Tom unhesitatingly provided her - almost instinctively from the start - with the physical, intellectual and emotional safety and security she needed without her having to ask. Despite the discrepancies in their incomes and their upbringings - she had definitely come from the wrong side of the tracks in comparison to him - she neither needed nor wanted anything from him that a lot of women he met did - not money, not fame, nor even the cache of being able to say she was dating a celebrity.

He had been - not so subtly - trying to get her to agree to come live with him since about two weeks after they met, when he came to realize just where it was that she lived, which he did not consider to be a safe area in the least. But Dora had loved her small apartment and hadn't had any troubles at all, despite the fact that she knew it was in a high crime area.

Eventually, though, he managed to - lovingly but persistently - poke and prod her into agreeing to move into his place, and they had decided to throw this party in order to introduce her to more of his friends, as well as his parents who coincidentally were both in town this weekend.

He had been so busy with the play, though, that he hadn't been as much help to her as he had planned to be, so the lion's share of the work involved in throwing the party had landed on her slight shoulders, which had caused her entirely too much strain, as far as he was concerned.

Add to that the fact that he hadn't been able to get out of doing an interview with a very important journalist that ran over by a half an hour unexpectedly, the fact that he hadn't been there to present her as his to his parents, and her overall tendency to be surprisingly nervous about parties in general, much less one they were throwing, and he knew she was just barely shy of her breaking point, holding herself together by not much more than sheer grit and determination.

Tom kissed the stop of her head lightly, loosening his arms a bit, smiling slightly as hers immediately snaked around him to hold him close again. "Ready to go back out there? I can't wait to properly introduce you to my parents."

Since she'd already met them, that was going to be much more of a breeze than she'd originally thought.

Dora nodded bravely against his chest until he stepped back a bit and, tipping her chin up, kissing her so tenderly, so lovingly that it brought tears to her eyes again.

Her hands found their way into the neckline of his shirt, where they liked to rest on his bare shoulders, always preferring to touch his flesh rather than his clothes, taking some kind of unnamed strength from the skin to skin contact.

Her eyes shone as she looked up at him, and Tom felt his heart - and his cock - contract painfully at the love - and the lust - that he saw burning brightly there, knowing the two were as entirely inseparable for him in the case of his little Dora as they were for her.

"You know they all think we're having sex in here, right?" she ventured casually.

He looked startled. "They what?"

"You didn't see the looks we were getting as you led me in here, but they're all quite certain we're screwing like rabbits right about now"

Not one to worry much about such things, regardless, he waggled his eyebrows at her. "Should I begin to moan loudly, or would you rather start?"

Not trusting him as far as he could throw him, she gave him an outraged look, smacking him on the arm then, just in case, pressing her hand over his mouth. "Don't you dare!" she hissed, but she was laughing at the same time, and that had been what he was aiming for.

Kissing her fingers, he caught her hand and smiled down at her, then reached for the door, saying as he opened it in a voice meant just for her, "I cannot tell you how proud I am to have you on my arm, my darling."

With that, he tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and they faced the fray together as he opened the door, Tom recalling her to friends that had already met her, and introducing her to those she hadn't as they made their way to his parents, who were standing together near the food laden dining room table.

When they were finally standing in front of his Mum and Dad, he blushed brightly as he apologized sincerely for not being able to do this when they'd first arrived, but then he formally introduced her to them, and, since they'd already shook her hand, they each hugged her warmly and kissed both of her cheeks.

They spent some time talking to his parents, then began to circulate a bit so that no one felt left out, sometimes remaining together and sometimes splitting up. But wherever she was, she knew he was keeping a keen eye out for her, and any time she was within arm's reach of him, he either casually took her hand in his - if he didn't want to interrupt her conversation - or his - or, if she was free, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his side, almost but not quite absently because there was definite intent there to have her as close to him as was proprietous whenever he could.

Dora was surprised at just how quickly the evening went by once he'd arrived to allay her fears, as always, and pretty soon it was just the two of them and the flat somehow seemed almost too quiet after they saw the last couple off.

Tom took care of the locking up, and she had already begun to make a sweep of the place with a trash bag, until he came over to her and took it - and the plastic cup she'd been about to dump in there - completely out of her hands, putting them both down to guide her into their bedroom, where he proceeded to strip her down to her pretty little pink panties, then slip a soft, comfortable nightgown over her head, lifting her into his arms to swing her slowly to one side and then the other, indulging himself in one of his favorite things - he loved holding her bridal style whenever he could.

"Everyone had a wonderful time tonight, my lovely, and my Mum and Dad already love you almost as much as I do. You did a beautiful job, and I'm so sorry that I wasn't more help to you, but you're not to lift a finger towards the clean up. I'll do that."

Tom was gratified to feel muscles that had originally been tense when he'd gathered her up into his arms relax as she tucked her eyes against the side of his neck, her arms creeping around it to cling to him in a manner he'd come to recognize as a degree of intense surrender, a coveted side of her that he wasn't often shown, even now.

He had been going to leave her tucked up and watching something on the telly while he cleaned up, but instead he tucked them both beneath the covers - hurriedly shucked off his own clothes down to his skin - and merely held her against his long length. He couldn't keep his hands off her, even though he knew that she was much too exhausted to receive him tonight.

So he contented himself with gentling her, brushing her hair back from her face and holding her tightly, entangling himself with her in such a way that almost every part of them was touching, generously bestowing butterfly kisses here and there on her delicate skin, wordlessly letting her know just how loved and treasured she was as she drifted to sleep within the infinite safety of his warm, loving arms.


End file.
